Annotations by Alexey Sklyarenko

Revisiting Ardis in the summer 1888, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) asks Ada if Percy de Prey (a country gentleman) is her new beau:

Describing the debauch á trois with Ada snd Lucette after the dinner in ‘Ursus,’ Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions a Casanovanic situation and calls Casanova a double-wencher:

Discussing the shooting script based on Mlle Larivière’s novel Les Enfants Maudits (“The Accursed Children”), Marina (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother) puzzles over a love scene where the young chatelaine’s ‘radiant beauty’ is mentioned and asks what ‘radiant beauty’ means:

According to Ada, at Marina’s funeral Demon Veen (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father) promised her not to cheat the poor grubs:

‘My upper-lip space feels indecently naked.’ (He had shaved his mustache off with howls of pain in her presence). ‘And I cannot keep sucking in my belly all the time.’

In his Commentary to Shade’s poem Kinbote (in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962, Shade’s mad commentator who imagines that he is Charles the Beloved, the last self-exiled king of Zembla) mentions the New York magazine The Beau and the Butterfly in which Shade’s short poem "The Nature of Electricity" appeared after the author’s death:

Investigating the phenomena in the Haunted Barn, Hazel Shade (the poet’s daughter in VN’s novel Pale Fire, 1962) asked the luminous circlet if it were a will-o-the-wisp:

After his first night with Ada in “Ardis the Second” Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) tells Ada that he has paid her eight compliments, as a certain Venetian:

The butler, now fully dressed, arrived with the coffee and toast. And the Ladore Gazette. It contained a picture of Marina being fawned upon by a young Latin actor.

At the family dinner in “Ardis the Second” Demon Veen (in VN’s novel Ada, 1969, Van’s and Ada’s father) tells Marina (Van’s, Ada’s and Lucette’s mother) ‘vous me comblez’ (you overwhelm me with kindness):

‘Ah!’ said Demon, tasting Lord Byron’s Hock. ‘This redeems Our Lady’s Tears.’

Describing his love life in the years of his last separation with Ada, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions Lucy Manfristan, a red-haired English virgin:

Describing his departure from Ardis, Van Veen (the narrator and main character in VN’s novel Ada, 1969) mentions undulating fields of wheat speckled with the confetti of poppies and bluets: